1 The expiation of an uncertain murder. 10 The usage of a captive taken to wife. 15 The firstborn is not to be disinherited upon private affection. 18 A stubborn son is to be stoned to death. 22 The malefactor must not hang all night on a tree.
Deu 21:1 If someone is found slain, lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who the killer was,
Found slain. For a God has always emphasized the sacredness of human life and of personal rights (see on Gen. 9:5, 6).
Deu 21:2 your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns.
Presumably the elders and judges of the villages in the vicinity of the place where the body was found chs. 16:18; 19:12).
Deu 21:3 Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke
The elders of the city nearest to the body would be held responsible for the performance of the necessary last rites. It may have been presumed that the slayer was a person from the immediate vicinity.
Heifer. The age is not given, though Jewish commentators give two years as the age required. In other circumstances a heifer of three years is specified (Gen. 15:9).
Never worn a yoke. That is, not been worked as a draft animal (see Num. 19:2).
Deu 21:4 and lead it down to a valley that has not been ploughed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer’s neck.
The emphasis in the verse here is on the constant flowing water, and not the size or the condition of the surface.
Ploughed. Referring to an uncultivated spot (see on Gen. 45:6).
Break neck. Commentators have seen in the heifer a substitute for the murderer. There is a certain ritualistic element, in that the animal is young and has not been used in common labor.
Deu 21:5 The Levitical priests shall step forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of the LORD and to decide all cases of dispute and assault.
The priests of the nearest Levitical city would be present to see that the requirements were carried out in harmony with what had been prescribed.
The authority of the Levites was far reaching. They had a voice in every important decision. In this case their presence gave validity to the placing of the burden of the murder on the district in which the body was found.
Deu 21:6 Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley,
Wash their hands. Taking water from the brook of the valley, they thus protested their innocence and that of the city they represented.
8Compare the words of the psalmist (Ps. 26:6; 73:13), and the action of Pilate at the trial of Christ (Matt. 27:24).
Over the heifer. If the heifer represented the unknown slayer, as seems to have been the case, then this act was symbolic of the placing of the guilt upon him.
Deu 21:7 and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done.
Shall declare. In a ceremonial sense (ch. 27:14). They made a solemn declaration, in keeping with the authority of their holy office.
Deu 21:8 Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, LORD, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then the bloodshed will be atoned for,
The noun from the same root is translated “mercy seat” (Ex. 25:17–22). The idea is that a covering, for protection. Redeemed. Literally, “purchased,” “paid the price for.”
It is sometimes translated “deliver” (Job 33:28; Ps. 55:18; 69:18; 78:42; 119:134), and “rescue” (1 Sam. 14:45).
Do not hold you people guilty.
It may possibly be implied that the people of the vicinity were held guilty, in part, perhaps because they had not made the roads leading to their city as safe as they should have been.
Deu 21:9 and you will have purged from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
So shalt thou put away. The Hebrew is emphatic: “and thou, shalt burn out,” meaning to “utterly root out,” or “consume.”
Deu 21:10 When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives,
Inasmuch as the Canaanites were to be wiped out, it is possible that the reference here is a general one referring to future conflicts with the surrounding nations (see on ch. 20:13, 14, 16).
Deu 21:11 if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife.
Nothing is said as to whether she was married, but if all the males were slain ( ch. 20:13), she would be either unmarried or a widow.
Deu 21:12 Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails. Shave her head. Probably in mourning, or for purification, as some commentators think.
Some widows in the East are said to perform a similar type of ritual at the end of a year of mourning for their deceased husbands.
Deu 21:13 and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.
She was to be withdrawn from public gaze, and remain in retirement for one month (see Gen. 38:11). A full month.
Wife.
This would give her time to adjust herself to her new environment. It is apparent that God intended to discourage illicit relations, and to encourage lawful marriage.
Even a captive woman was not to be made the plaything of a man’s passions, but if willing to live in harmony with God’s people, she was to be given an honorable status.
Deu 21:14 If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.
She was to be free to determine her own future, as mistress of her own person.
Not sell her.
Compare the status of the married Hebrew slave whom the husband wished to divorce (Ex. 21:8). Not make merchandise.
Deu 21:15 If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love,
15. The hated. The word “hated” in such cases implies sexual aversion toward This was the case with Jacob and Leah (see Gen. 29:16, 30, 31). It is not unlikely that in such case the husband’s affection for the children of the favored wife would be very much more marked.
Deu 21:16 when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love.
Note that only sons are spoken of, not daughters, for the latter were not entitled to a double portion.
Jewish tradition is that only sons born before the death of the father were so privileged. A posthumous son was not entitled to a double portion.
Deu 21:17 He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.
Acknowledge.
Despite his personal feelings and predilections.
Double portion.
If a man had five sons the inheritance would be divided into six portions, the eldest son receiving two (see Gen. 48:22; 2 Kings 2:9).
Deu 21:18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him,
Stubborn and rebellious. “Stubborn” is from a verb meaning “to be rebellious,” “resentful,” “sullen.”
Jewish commentators generally refer this to sons who manifested sullen resentment toward God’s requirements and refused to carry them out. “Rebellious” the Jews applied to one who did the things he was forbidden to do, particularly in relation to parents (see Ps. 78:8; Jer. 5:23). Or … of his mother.
Both parents were to be equally honored; both were to be dutifully obeyed.
Disciplined. often referring to corporal punishment.
Deu 21:19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town.
Deu 21:20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Stubborn.
This word implies the idea of being unreformable, of squandering one’s health and wealth.
Elders at the gate.
Men of his town. Yet the carrying out of so severe a penalty was not left to the father’s judgment; it was the solemn responsibility of the men of the city (see chs. 13:10; 17:5; 22:24).
To discipline with severity was within the province of the parent (Prov. 19:18), but not the carrying out of the death penalty.
Deu 21:21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
For other crimes that merited the death penalty, see Ex. 21:15, 17; Lev. 20:2, 27; cf. Joshua 7:25. Put evil away. See on ch. 19:20.
Deu 21:22 If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole,
Hanging is not infrequently recorded in the Bible (Gen. 40:22; 2 Sam. 21:12; Esther 7:10; 9:14). Jewish commentators maintain that the accused was put to death, and then the dead body hanged on a tree.
Deu 21:23 you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
On a pole overnight. See Joshua 8:29; 10:27.
God’s curse. The root translated “accursed” means also to be “despicable,” “contemptible,” “dishonored.”
The land was conceived of as being defiled by the exposure of the bodies of criminals who had suffered the extreme penalty.
The criminal who was hanged was thought of as being under God’s ban, and his body was not to remain in the public gaze.
Jesus was condemned by His own people as one of the worst of criminals, and as under God’s curse (Matt. 27:43; cf. Isa. 53:4).